The 30-year-old two-time Olympian and Asian Games champion has been undergoing rehab to strengthen his weak hamstring muscles in order to stay on track for the World Championships in September.
Navneet Singh
India’s two-time Olympian and national record holder in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, Avinash Sable, is focusing on rehabilitation to strengthen his hamstring and improve hurdle clearance as part of his preparation for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, scheduled from September 13 to 21, senior athletics coach Kalyan Chaudhari said.
“A smooth hurdle clearance is an important aspect for steeplechase runners to improve overall performance,” Chaudhari told Sportsbackstory.com over the phone.
Sable is currently based at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) campus in Bengaluru. Chaudhari, who has been overseeing Sable’s training schedule for the past six weeks, has advised the 30-year-old Asian and Commonwealth Games medallist to undergo extensive rehab to strengthen his hamstring.
“He (Sable) had a hamstring problem, which was why he wasn’t able to negotiate hurdles properly during two back-to-back Diamond League competitions in China in April/May. Hence, a physio was assigned to oversee the rehab process in the build-up to the 26th Asian Athletics Championships,” the athletics coach said.
Good rehab enabled Sable to post a season’s best on his way to winning gold with a time of 8:20.92 in Gumi, South Korea.
The gruelling 3,000m steeplechase, one of the track events at the Olympics and Worlds, includes 28 hurdles and seven water jumps. The water jump consists of a hurdle followed by a pit with water. The height of the men’s hurdles is 36 inches, while it’s 30 inches for the women’s event. “Take-off and landing during water jumps are important,” the athletics coach explained.
Since 2018, when Sable first broke a long-standing national record during a domestic event in Odisha, the Army runner has consistently improved his national record several times.
Sable’s personal best and current national record of 8:09.91 was set during the 2024 Paris Diamond League in France. The current world record of 7:52.11 was set by Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma in 2023.
Sable qualified for the 2025 World Athletics Championships during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The Worlds in Tokyo will be his fourth global competition since the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships in Qatar. In all four global competitions, podium finishes have eluded him. In between these global events, he won a silver medal behind Kenya’s Abraham Kibiwot at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games—a first by an Indian athlete. He also won gold at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
“Steeplechase is a tactical event and competitors must be armed with a combination of endurance and speed. The finishing has to be strong,” Chaudhari said.
Sable said his hurdle clearance was better on his way to gold at the Asian Athletics Championships. “I was training in Ooty. I had some issues in April but I was feeling better in Gumi. I think this meet has shown that my preparations for world championships in Japan are on the right track.”
